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Roman 16:1-16 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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Alright, and please take your copy of God's Word out and turn to Romans chapter 16.
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Wes, thank you for saying be seated. I lost track of where we were in those verses.
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! No, the song was over.
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Romans chapter 16. We're going to look together today at verses 1 through 16.
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And as I said to you before, we've completed now Paul's doctrinal treatise.
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He ended in chapter 15, verse 13 with that.
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We're sort of in the epilogue stage now. He's winding it down for us.
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And we come here to what could be, at a first glance, sort of a meaningless list of names.
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Just his cordiality towards the church in Rome.
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And he's just kind of wrapping things up.
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But if we look at it carefully, and we really begin to think about who Paul is, his life, his ministry,
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and why it is that he's writing these words that he's writing.
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Why it is that he pins it in this way.
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There's still much to glean in this last chapter of Romans.
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So let's read it together, and I'll lead us in a prayer, and we'll begin.
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Romans 16, verse 1.
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I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church of Kincray,
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that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints,
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and help her in whatever she may need from you.
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For she has been a patron of many, and of myself as well.
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Greet Prissa and Achilla, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
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who risked their necks for my life,
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to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.
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Greet also the church in their house.
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Greet my beloved Aponatus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.
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Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.
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Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and fellow prisoners.
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They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me.
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Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.
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Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys.
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Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ.
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Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus.
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Greet my kinsmen Herodian.
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Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus.
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Greet those workers in the Lord, Trephania and Trephosa.
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Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord.
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Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.
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Greet Asencretus, Phlegion, Hermes, Patrobos, Hermes, and the brothers who are with them.
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Greet Philologus, I knew that was the one that was going to get me.
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Julia, Nerus, and his sister, and Olympus, and all the saints who are with them.
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Greet one another with a holy kiss.
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All the churches of Christ greet you.
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Let's pray.
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Father, we praise you for your word, and we believe that all of it is inspired.
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And we believe it is sufficient as the guide for holy living.
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So I pray, Father, as we approach a text that may seem meaningless on the surface,
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you will help us to glean what should be gleaned from it.
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That you will apply it to our hearts and have it yield wisdom and proper living in our lives.
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We pray this in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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So I want to bring to you four observations from the text this morning.
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And we're actually going to come back to this text, I believe, next week.
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Lord willing, I think that's what he would have me do,
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to look at the first few verses in a little greater detail.
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But I want to show you some overarching observations from the text.
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So four observations, and the first being the names.
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Paul names off 27 people.
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He asks others to be greeted, those of the household, etc.,
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those that meet in the church, in so-and-so's home.
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But he names specifically 27 people.
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We see Phoebe, who she's believed to be the one carrying this letter.
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We don't know that for a fact, but with fair certainty,
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there are some clues that tell us she's the one that's actually carrying the letter
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to the church in Rome.
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And then 26 others who are in Rome at this time.
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Now just in brief, just to give you a little bit of background for Phoebe,
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and then Prissa, and Achilla.
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And that's who we're going to look at next week, I believe.
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Phoebe here is referred to as a sister, a servant, a patron of many.
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She's from a little port, which is now a town.
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It actually still exists, called Kincray.
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I believe I'm pronouncing that correctly.
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Which is a port that's southeast of Corinth.
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So she's a Corinthian.
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She lives there in Corinth.
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It's believed that that's where Paul was wintering when he wrote this letter.
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And then Prissa, or Priscilla, you'll find that in Acts 18.
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She's called Priscilla there.
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It would be like William and Will.
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And Achilla, her husband.
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They're tent makers, and Paul stayed with them.
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They were the ones that Paul was actually with in Corinth.
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And we see a great commendation of these three individuals to the church there in Rome.
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But the real point I want to make to you as he's laying out all of these names in this way,
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is that we ought to know one another's names.
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And that might seem kind of obtuse, right?
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Like, well, sure, we ought to.
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But don't we fail at that?
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Aren't we really kind of pitiful at really knowing one another's names?
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And we use all kinds of excuses for that.
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Certainly all of us have a capacity for knowledge and being able to remember faces and names.
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But don't we tend to use an excuse?
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I'm just not good at remembering names, right?
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As an excuse for not really knowing one another.
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Now, there's evidence in this text that Paul knew some of these individuals.
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We see that throughout it.
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But we don't know for a fact how he knew them,
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what interaction he had had with them.
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It would be my assumption that many of them he's just simply heard of.
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He's heard of their faithfulness as their Roman believers.
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But yet he knew their names.
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I believe he took as Jesus his great example.
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Jesus knows our names.
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John 10, 3 says,
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The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name.
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And he leads them out.
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We have, I think, a particularly difficult setting in which to learn names.
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Because we have a lot of college students that come here.
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And this is an abnormal service for us.
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If this is your first time here,
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the college students have been released for the summer.
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And they'll be back in the fall.
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And they come and they go.
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And they kind of become, at times, the faceless masses.
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That show up right before the service and sit down.
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And up and out they go.
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And I've gotten this horrible habit of learning people's names by what they're wearing.
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But, you know, people don't tend to wear the same thing every week.
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I wish you would.
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That would help me a lot in that way.
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But we use that, at least I have, as an excuse.
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And then we're embarrassed when we don't know people's names.
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Right?
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So you feel like you should,
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I'm pretty sure I've seen him here like three or four times.
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I really ought to know his name.
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But we become embarrassed by the fact that we don't know one another's names.
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And this church is going to have to take a big slice of humble pie.
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And start going to each other and saying,
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I know I should know your name.
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I know that we've been here together for a year.
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And I've never taken the time to come and even ask you what your name is.
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But we ought to know one another's names.
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Simple, right?
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The first observation.
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More than that, though, we ought to know one another.
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Not just know somebody's names, but actually know one another.
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And so that's the second observation.
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Notice the differing relationships that Paul lays out for us throughout this text.
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I'm just going to rattle them off for you here.
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He says,
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Sister, brother, servant, saints, patron, fellow workers, church, first fruits, kinsmen, fellow prisoners, beloved, approved in Christ, elect, and mother to me.
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You find all of these differing relationships throughout the text.
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And as you come to know more people and to actually know them, to actually share your life with them,
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you are going to find that God is going to bring grace to your life in varying ways, in different measures,
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and people are going to take on different forms of relationship with you.
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And you will be a grace to them.
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So we must not only know each other's names, but we must actually know one another.
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Be honest with one another.
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Become transparent and share with one another what's going on in our lives.
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Be willing to ask difficult questions when people want to put up barriers and not share with you what's going on in their life.
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Have a deep, real concern for people's souls.
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Thirdly, notice the Christ-centered nature of these relationships.
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The Christ-centered nature of these relationships.
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In verse 2, he says,
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Welcome her in the Lord.
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Verse 3,
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My fellow workers in Christ Jesus.
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Verse 5,
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The first convert to Christ.
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Verse 7,
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They were in Christ before me.
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Verse 8,
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My beloved in the Lord.
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Verse 9,
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My fellow worker in Christ.
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Verse 10,
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Apelles,
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Who is approved in Christ.
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Verse 11,
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Greet those in the Lord.
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Verse 12,
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Greet those workers in the Lord.
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Verse 13,
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Persis,
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Who has worked hard in the Lord.
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Verse 14,
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Rufus,
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Chosen in the Lord.
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You see the theme that he's carrying on as he begins to speak about these people.
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Remember that Paul's not writing to us to teach us something in this case,
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but we can learn from the way he talks about the saints.
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How we speak about others bears witness of the condition of our hearts.
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When you're speaking with others,
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when you're interacting with them on the phone and in person and through email and on Facebook,
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do you speak of Christ?
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Is your relationship centered on Christ in this way?
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As you speak of others,
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you talk about those in the church.
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Is it in these terms?
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Is it this way?
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And some of you may say to me,
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Well, I just don't really like to talk spiritual.
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It's not really my thing.
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I don't like to wear my faith on my sleeve.
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But the greater issue here is the condition of our hearts.
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Are our relationships Christ centered?
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Are they Christ centric?
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Are they saturated with the gospel?
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And I present to you that if they are,
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we'll speak this way.
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We'll talk about Christ.
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We'll couple him up with these people we talk about that we love and genuinely care about so very much.
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Matthew 12, 34,
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Jesus said,
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For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
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What you say gives clear evidence to who you are.
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You must ask yourself that question.
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I've had to ask it of myself this week.
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Is Christ on my lips as I speak to and speak about the church?
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Fourthly, notice the love that saturates these relationships.
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The love that saturates these relationships.
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The overarching, the repeated command that Paul continues to give to them is this word greet.
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Verb, greet.
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Which means to draw to oneself.
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Right?
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Picture wise, you can think of somebody reaching out and grabbing somebody and embracing them.
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Right?
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So what he's saying to them is,
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As this letter is being circulated,
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As you're traveling this letter around Rome to these multiple churches that are meeting in homes,
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Embrace one another.
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Have an endearing love one another that is fueled by the gospel.
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Notice four times, verse 5, verse 8, verse 9, and verse 12.
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He uses the term,
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My beloved.
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A great term of endearment.
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And at the very end, in verse 16,
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He says,
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Greet one another with a holy kiss.
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Now, ladies and gentlemen,
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I'm not going to suggest that we start kissing one another.
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So, let your guard down.
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Alright?
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Culturally,
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And we're this way some too.
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Some families do this.
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But culturally,
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Families in this day always kissed.
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In greeting and in departure.
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That was a common thing that they did.
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They would embrace each other's faces.
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And they would kiss on the forehead.
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Or for men,
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You'd kiss their beard.
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Which I thought was really interesting.
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I don't really know what that means exactly.
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But somewhere on the face region,
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They would kiss their beard.
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This was a common thing you did.
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And it was a way that you endeared yourself to a family member.
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So, in these days,
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As people were claiming Christ,
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Becoming part of the Christian church,
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Many of them were being wholly rejected by their families.
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They were now orphans, so to speak.
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They no longer had a family.
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They didn't go to family reunions.
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They didn't have a place to go on Mother's Day.
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Right?
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So, the church became their family.
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And it became common practice in these days
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To display.
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We're a family in this way.
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They greeted one another.
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They called it a holy kiss.
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That became the common vernacular for what that was.
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A holy kiss.
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We are now family in Christ.
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So, he's encouraging them to do that.
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And to continue doing that.
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To treat each other in that way.
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So, you can see that love absolutely saturates these relationships.
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And they ought for ours.
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Christians, fellow Christians,
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Will be precious to one another
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When they feel deeply the realities of the gospel.
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Christians will be precious to one another
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When they feel deeply the realities of the gospel.
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Now, notice I say, feel deeply.
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I didn't say, when they know the realities of the gospel.
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I say, when they feel deeply.
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Because a lot of us have a lot of mental knowledge.
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We could expound for you all of the promises of the gospel.
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How they're carried out.
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We could use large words to make our points.
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But until we feel it.
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Until it actually works down in us and softens our hearts.
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Christians will not be precious to us the way they should.
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We have been saved from great sin.
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Every one of us.
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It doesn't matter where you grew up.
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It doesn't matter the household you were in.
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It doesn't matter how moral you were.
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You were an enemy of God.
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And God has rescued you because of his great love for you.
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And that binds us together.
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If you realize what you've been saved from.
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Can you just imagine if all of us were in a great natural disaster together.
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If suddenly this ground shook.
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This building collapsed on all of us.
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And we were all trapped together in this building for days.
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Rescue crew came and dug us out a week later.
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Think of like the Chilean miners and all that time they spent underground.
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We would be tight.
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Right?
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We would be really, really good friends.
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Because we had gone through a great tragedy together.
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This is true of us.
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We have all lived in sin and been rescued from sin.
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When we understand the weight of that.
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It will make us precious to one another.
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We will see pictures of God's grace in each other's faces.
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Right?
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We will make expressions of who he is to us.
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And we will love one another.
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This gospel will permeate our hearts.
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And it will trickle out in loving relationships.
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John 13, 35.
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Jesus says,
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By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
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People will know we are disciples of Christ if we love one another.
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It doesn't say if we go to church on Sunday morning.
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It doesn't say if we dress a certain way.
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Do or don't listen to certain music.
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Eat certain foods.
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Abstain from certain drinks.
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That's not what he says to us here.
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He says the true mark of the Christian life is if we love one another.
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Turn back in Romans with me to chapter 12.
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Verses 9 through 13.
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You remember Paul finishes his heavy doctrine at the end of chapter 11.
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He goes on to say then,
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Therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.
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Holy and acceptable to God.
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Which is your spiritual worship.
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And I've shown you how his logic follows.
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That the overarching thing he's saying to us in verse 9 of chapter 12 is let love be genuine.
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And then he's fleshing out for us the rest of that through chapter 15 verse 13.
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He's showing us what that actually looks like.
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It's summed up in those four words.
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Let love be genuine.
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Or let love be without hypocrisy.
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So let's read the rest of that.
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Let love be genuine.
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Abhor what is evil.
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Hold fast to what is good.
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Love one another with brotherly affection.
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Outdo one another in showing honor.
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Do not be slothful in zeal.
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Be fervent in spirit.
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Serve the Lord.
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Rejoice in hope.
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Be patient in tribulation.
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Be constant in prayer.
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Contribute to the needs of the saints.
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And seek to show hospitality.
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And he goes on to talk about the way in which we should love the world and beyond that.
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Even when it's difficult.
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Even when we have to give up our own rights.
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Right?
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But here's where he's thrusting this idea of what it looks like to be a Christian.
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To be a life sacrifice to God in light of what he's done for us.
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It's that our love is genuine.
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1 Corinthians 13.1 says,
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If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels.
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We get that.
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If I can speak all languages.
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And I can even speak the language of the angels.
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But I have not love.
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I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.
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The things that come out of my mouth are absolutely worthless.
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Love is the thing that should characterize us.
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And look at Paul's life.
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As he speaks of these 27 believers.
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The love that permeates that text.
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Do you love the church in that way?
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I don't think I do all the time.
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I express to you some of my own failure in this regard.
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A man that I love dearly in this church brought to me this week.
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That I have been neglecting his soul.
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He needed me at some times.
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And I wasn't there for him.
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My initial reaction was,
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Well, you've got to ask.
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You've got to ask me.
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I'm available.
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But he wasn't even in a state to ask.
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He really wanted to avoid me.
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What he really needed was me to be in his life.
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He really needed me to pour out gospel into him.
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And I realized as he talked to me.
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As I was going through stages of defense and acceptance.
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As he's talking.
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Right?
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I realized a painful truth.
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And it's even embarrassing to say.
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But it needs to be said.
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That I have felt inadequate for the task God's given me here.
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I felt inadequate for it.
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And I have waited for you guys to give me the approval.
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By asking me to be involved in your life.
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Nathan, we want you to input into our lives.
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And this young man said to me very well.
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They've already asked.
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They're here.
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They sit in the congregation.
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You're the pastor.
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They've already asked.
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Should they have to vocalize it?
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And I realized all at once.
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That my insufficiency.
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Was coming from the fact that I don't believe the gospel in this area.
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Right?
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Because if I did.
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I would believe God's put me in this position.
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And he has made me sufficient.
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Not that I have sufficiency of myself.
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But that he has made me sufficient.
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So we need to preach the gospel to one another.
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I had to preach the gospel to myself every hour.
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Since I had that conversation.
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To remind myself.
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My sufficiency is not in me.
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I am insufficient.
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Of my own accord.
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But Christ in me.
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Is supremely sufficient.
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Beyond sufficient.
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Overflowingly sufficient.
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He has given me everything I need.
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To minister to those in their time of need.
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And I've been asked.
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So I wanted to show you this morning.
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My own failure.
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I think you need to see.
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That I need grace.
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I am so far.
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So far.
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From perfect.
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And this is how the gospel then.
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Ministers to every aspect.
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Of our living.
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The great hurt for me.
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As we're talking.
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Is not so much.
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That I neglected.
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The relationship.
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Which was the.
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Then the horizontal.
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Outworking.
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Right.
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But that the.
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Vertical axis had been.
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Messed up.
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That I had missed the ultimate point.
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Of the gospel.
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In my ministry.
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And that is that.
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Christ.
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Is my sufficiency.
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Right.
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So how does that work into.
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Your life.
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As you're hearing these things.
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As you're saying.
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You know.
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Nathan kind of got me on the obtuse point.
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I don't know everybody's name.
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I'm not even really working at knowing everybody's name.
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I certainly don't know people.
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The way I ought to know people.
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I can't say that I.
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My relationship with Christ centered.
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That he's on my lips all the time.
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As I talk about them.
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As I talk with them.
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And I don't know that love saturates.
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The relationship in this way.
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Recognize that Christ has made you sufficient.
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For the place that he has called you.
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As well.
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Right.
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You may not be good at remembering names.
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He's sufficient for that.
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Right.
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There are mnemonic devices.
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There are ways.
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To work it out.
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Right.
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Keep a notepad in your pocket.
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God will give you the grace.
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To remember names.
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Through a notepad in your pocket.
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Find a way.
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To do these things.
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Christ.
22:02
Is sufficient for them.
22:05
Moms.
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It's Mother's Day.
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And a lot of sermons are being preached today.
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On a charge to you.
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You know your responsibilities.
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You know that those precious babies are yours.
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To raise up.
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Right.
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You know.
22:18
Day in and day out.
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You're experiencing it.
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Right.
22:21
Keeping the house picked up.
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And keeping fingers from getting cut off.
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You know.
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The great challenges.
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That are in front of you.
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And Christ is sufficient for that.
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Right.
22:30
He will fill you up.
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That you can accomplish that task.
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Because he's put you in that role.
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Father's the same is true.
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To pastor.
22:38
Provide.
22:39
And protect.
22:40
For our families.
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The task has been given to you.
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And therefore.
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Christ has made you sufficient.
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For it.
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2 Corinthians 9.
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8 says.
22:50
And God is able to make all grace abound to you.
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So that having all sufficiency.
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In all things.
22:56
At all times.
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You may abound.
22:58
In every.
22:59
Good work.
23:01
Let's pray together.